THE LIBERATION OF THE HEBREWS.
The oppression which, according to the Pentateuch, the Egyptians
exercised upon the sons of Jacob when settled in the land of Goshen, by
field-labour and tasks of building, may be regarded as a historical
fact. It is proved by the position of Egypt and her relations to her
neighbours on the north-east in the fourteenth century B.C., and it
agrees with the arrangements and aims entertained and carried out in
this border-land by Sethos I. and Ramses II. It must have been a
grievous burden for the Hebrews to pass from the easy life of shepherds
to the work of agriculture, and abandon the old life with their flocks.
In addition there were the heavy tasks of the fortifications, the canal,
and the new cities. Were they to give up the memory of their fathers,
and their attachment to their customary mode of life, in order to
perform taskwork for the Egyptians and become Egyptians? Was it possible
to escape this grievous oppression? How could they be freed from the
mighty power of the Pharaohs? Could the Hebrews, a peaceful nation and
without practice in war, venture to resist the numerous, disciplined,
and drilled armies of Egypt?
The Hebrew tradition gives the following account of the liberation of
their forefathers, connecting it with the supposed command of Pharaoh to
throw into the Nile all the male children born to the Israelites, and to
allow the daughters only to live. The son of Levi, the son of Jacob, was
Kahath, and Kahath's son was Amram. Amram had a son born to him by his
wife Jochebed. When Jochebed saw that the boy was fair, she hid him for
three months; and when she could hide him no longer, she took an ark of
reeds and daubed it with resin and pitch, and placed the boy in it, and
put the ark in the reeds on the bank of the Nile, and the boy's sister
was placed near to see what would come to pass. Then Pharaoh's daughter
came with her maidens to bathe in the river. She saw the ark, and caused
it to be brought to her, and when she opened it the boy wept. It is one
of the children of the Hebrews, she said, and had pity on it. Then the
sister came and offered to find a nursing-woman from among the Hebrews,
and brought her mother. When the child grew up, Pharaoh's daughter took
him for her son, and called him Moses. One day Moses went out to his
brethren and saw their burdens, and when an Egyptian smote a Hebrew, and
Moses perceived that no one was at hand, he slew the Egyptian, and fled
before Pharaoh into the land of Midian. And as he rested at a well, the
seven daughters of Jethro came to water the sheep of their father, but
the other shepherd prevented them, and drove them away. Then Moses came
to their help, and watered their sheep, and their father Jethro took him
in, and Moses found favour in his eyes, and took Zipporah, one of his
daughters, to wife, and kept Jethro's sheep. After many days the king of
Egypt died, and the sons of Israel sighed by reason of their burdens;
and God heard their complaint, and thought of his covenant with
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Then Moses, as he was keeping the flocks of
Jethro, and led them behind the desert, and came to Mount Horeb, saw a
bush burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. And Moses
approached, and Jehovah spoke to him out of the bush, and said: I am the
God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; come not near; put thy shoes from off
thy feet, for the place where thou standest is holy ground. Then Moses
veiled his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. Then Jehovah said:
I have seen the misery of my people in Egypt, and I will deliver them.
Thou shalt go to Pharaoh and lead my people away to Canaan, to a land
flowing with milk and honey. Moses answered: O my Lord, I am not a man
of words; I cannot speak to the children of Israel, for I am dull of
speech and heavy of tongue. Go, said Jehovah, I will be with thy lips,
and will teach thee what to say; and Aaron thy brother, the priest, can
speak. Then Moses took his wife and his sons and put them upon the ass,
and turned back to Egypt, and Aaron his elder brother met him in the
desert. Moses told him the commands of Jehovah, and they gathered the
elders of Israel together, and the people believed their words.
Then Moses and Aaron came into the presence of the king of Egypt, and
said: Let us go with our people three days' journey into the desert and
sacrifice to our God Jehovah, that He may not visit us with the
pestilence or the sword. The king answered: Would ye free the people
from their tasks? Go to your work. And he ordered the taskmasters and
the overseers to increase the work of the Israelites, and make their
service heavier, and to give them no more straw for their bricks, so
that they might be compelled to gather straw for themselves. But the
daily tale of bricks remained the same, and the chiefs of the
Israelites were beaten because they could not make up the sum. Then
Moses and Aaron went again to Pharaoh, and Aaron threw down his rod
before the king, and lo! it became a serpent. Then the wise men and
magicians of Egypt cast their rods down, and they also became serpents,
but Aaron's serpent consumed the rest. And Aaron stretched out his hand
over the waters of Egypt, and the water in the stream was turned into
blood, and the fish died, and the water became foul and noisome. But the
magicians of Egypt did the same by their art. Then Aaron stretched out
his hand over the stream, and the frogs came up over the fields, into
the houses, the chambers, the beds, the ovens and kneading-troughs. Then
Pharaoh called Moses and Aaron to take away the frogs from him and his
land; he was willing to let them go. And the frogs died away out of the
houses, the courts, and the fields. But when Pharaoh was delivered he
hardened his heart, and would not let the Hebrews go. Then Aaron turned
the dust of the earth into flies, and Moses and Aaron took at Jehovah's
bidding ashes of the oven and sprinkled them in the air, and the dust of
the ashes became boils and blains, breaking out on man and beast, on the
magicians, and all the Egyptians. And Moses stretched out his hand to
heaven, and Jehovah caused it to thunder and hail, and fire came down,
and the hail smote all that was in the field, man and beast, and all the
herbs of the field; and all the trees were destroyed; only in the land
of Goshen there was no hail. And Moses stretched out his hand over all
Egypt, and Jehovah brought the east wind, and in the morning the east
wind brought swarms of locusts, and they ate up all that the hail had
left in the field: there was nothing green in the field and in the
trees. And Moses stretched his hand towards heaven, and there was a
thick darkness in the land of Egypt for three days. And now the king was
willing to let Israel go, but their flocks and herds must remain behind.
Moses answered that not a single hoof should remain, and went in wrath
from the presence of Pharaoh. But to the Israelites he said: At midnight
Jehovah will go forth and smite all the firstborn of Egypt, from the
firstborn of Pharaoh to the firstborn of the woman behind the mill, and
all the firstborn of cattle. But they were to slay a yearling lamb
without blemish for each household, and to eat it roast, with unleavened
bread and bitter herbs. With loins girded, with shoes on their feet, and
staff in hand, they were to keep the feast. With the blood of the lamb
they were to strike the door-posts and the lintel of their houses, that
Jehovah might see the blood and pass by their doors. In the morning
there was not a house of the Egyptians in which there was not one dead.
There was a great cry in Egypt, and the king called Moses and Aaron and
said: Depart with your people, your flocks, and your herds.
Then the children of Israel set forth from Ramses to Succoth--600,000
men on foot, besides children. And with them went a number of strangers,
and many flocks and herds. And they went from Succoth, and encamped at
Etham, on the edge of the desert; and from Etham they went to
Pihahiroth, and encamped over against Baalzephon. But Pharaoh was
grieved that he had let the people go from their service; he pursued
them with all his chariots, his horsemen, and his army, and found them
encamped on the sea at Pihahiroth, over against Baalzephon. But Moses
stretched out his hand over the sea, and Jehovah caused the sea to go
back by a strong east wind through the whole night, and made the sea
into dry land, and the Israelites passed through the midst of the sea,
and the waters were a wall upon their right hand and a wall upon their
left. And the Egyptians pursued and came after them with their chariots
and their horsemen into the sea. Then Moses again stretched out his
hand, and the sea returned towards morning into its bed, and covered the
chariots and the horsemen of Pharaoh, so that not one of them was left.
And Moses and the children of Israel sang: I will sing of Jehovah, for
he is glorious; the horses and chariots he whelms in the sea; Jehovah,
the God of my father, will I praise. Jehovah is a man of war; Thy right
hand, O Jehovah, shatters the enemy. The chariots of Pharaoh and his
might he threw into the sea; his chosen charioteers were drowned in the
reed-sea. The floods covered them; like stones they sank in the pit. At
the breath of Thy nostrils the waters rose in a heap; the floods stood
like a bank; the floods ran in the midst of the sea. The enemy said: I
will pursue, and overtake, and divide the spoil; I will satisfy my lust
upon them; I will draw my sword, and destroy them with my hand. Thou
didst blow with Thy mouth, O Jehovah, and the sea covered them; they
sank like lead in the mighty waters. Who among the gods is like unto
thee, Jehovah?[630]
The older text narrated in a simple manner, that the Hebrews multiplied
greatly in Egypt, and the Egyptians vexed them with heavy burdens, and
God heard their cry, and thought of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob. Then God spoke to Moses: he would take Israel for his people,
and lead them out of Egypt, and Moses spoke to the children of Israel,
but they did not listen to him. Then the command came to Moses to speak
to Pharaoh, and Aaron was to speak for him. Afterwards came the plagues
(to which the revision has added the hail, the locusts, and the
darkness),[631] the slaying of the firstborn, the march through the sea
as described.[632] The text of the tribes of Joseph is far better
instructed, or, at any rate, far more detailed in its account of Moses,
no less than in that of Joseph. To it belongs the command of Pharaoh to
slay the children of the Hebrews, the rescue of Moses, the history of
his youth, his flight into the desert, his connection with Jethro, the
appearance of God on Sinai, and certain traits in the dealings with
Pharaoh, and the direct action of God in the march through the sea and
the desert.
Of both these narratives the tendency is the same, it is only more
strongly marked and broadly realised in the second. The God of the
Hebrews has pity on the sufferings of his people. He provides and
arouses their leader. To him and to Aaron he imparts the power of
working miracles which the magicians of Egypt can only imitate up to a
certain point. Yet the power of working miracles given to Moses and
Aaron is not enough to overcome Pharaoh. The decisive stroke is given by
Jehovah himself, inasmuch as he smites the firstborn among the Egyptians
of man and beast. And when Pharaoh hastens after the Hebrews Jehovah
causes the sea to retire before them, and finally buries Pharaoh and his
host under the returning waves. Thus has Jehovah led his people out of
Egypt with a strong hand and an outstretched arm.
The narrative of the slaying of the firstborn of the Egyptians and the
mode in which the Hebrews protected themselves from the visitation are
borrowed from the Hebrew ritual. We saw above that the firstlings of the
fruits, and "all that first opens the womb, man or beast," belonged to
the God of the Hebrews.[633] This firstborn must be sacrificed, or
ransomed by a vicarious sacrifice. In the spring the sacrifice of the
firstfruits was offered from an ancient period, and unleavened bread
eaten, as was usual with shepherds.[634] The spring, the time when
nature has borne anew, was also the right time to offer the sacrifice
for the redemption of the house. The head of the family at the spring
festival slew a lamb without breaking any bone, and with the blood he
smeared the lintel and door-posts. Hence the offering in the spring was
also the festival of redemption and purification--the passover, the
_passah_ of Jehovah, who had spared the house for the lamb. To this old
spring sacrifice, which was celebrated in the month Nisan, the first
month of the Hebrew year (it was the year of the Babylonians), at the
time of the full moon, when the sun was in the Ram, the first text has
already attached a historical background and meaning. It was in the
night following this sacrifice that the exodus from Egypt took place.
The unleavened bread of the ancient custom was explained by the haste of
the exodus; and as signs of the readiness to go forth, the girdle round
the loins, the shoes upon the feet, and the staff in the hand were
added to the old ritual; the smearing of the lintel with the blood was
done in order that the angel of Jehovah might distinguish the doors of
the Israelites from those of the Egyptians. Tradition turned the spring
festival and sacrifice into a feast of thanksgiving for the protection
of the firstborn of the Israelites while Jehovah carried off those of
the Egyptians, a thanksgiving for the deliverance of the nation out of
Egypt.
The lofty calling of the man whom Jehovah summoned to be the instrument
of the deliverance is shown in the Ephraimitic text by the marvellous
fortune which attended him even in his earliest years. The daughter of
Pharaoh himself, disregarding her father's commands, rescues the boy,
brings him up, takes him for her son, and gives the name to the man who
is destined to liberate the Hebrews and bring so much misfortune upon
Egypt. Amid the kindness shown to him by the Egyptians Moses does not
forget the people to whom he belongs. The sight of the oppressions which
his people suffer kindles his heart. A rash action, by which he avenges
the ill-treatment of a Hebrew, compels him to fly into the desert. Here
he founds a family by taking a Midianitish woman, a daughter of the
desert, to wife. In the second text the father of his wife is called
Jethro, in the revision Reuel.[635] When he has begotten sons here, and
is advanced in years, his mission is revealed to him on the mountain of
God. In both texts he hesitates to undertake it, but finally carries it
resolutely to the end.
As in the narrative of Joseph, so here, all that is said of Egypt agrees
with what we know from other sources of that country. As the Hebrews
were settled to the east of the Tanitic arm of the Nile, the locality
of the exposure in the meaning of the Ephraimitic text must be sought
in the neighbourhood of Tanis. We saw above that Ramses II. erected
considerable buildings in this district (p. 134). The name Moses, which
the king's daughter is said to have given to the rescued boy, may be
connected without violence with the Egyptian messu, _i.e._ the child.
The plagues too which tradition represents as coming upon Egypt are
suited to the nature of the land. Even now the water of the Nile becomes
at times red and disagreeable in smell; often after the inundation
swarms of frogs cover the fields, and at the same time myriads of
marsh-gnats and flies rise out of the mud, and locusts from time to time
in thick devastating swarms cover the fields in the valley of the
Nile.[636] Eruptions of the skin also occur after the inundation, and
sometimes grow into large boils. Storms of hail, though not entirely
unknown, are yet extremely rare in Egypt, and storms from the
south-west, which in the spring blow over the great desert, are one of
the worst plagues in Egypt; they bring with them violent heat and thick
dust, which darkens the sky.
If we attempt to ascertain the historical value of these narratives, it
follows from the helpless position of the Hebrews in regard to the
Egyptians which we have already described, that the idea of rescuing
them from the dominion of Egypt could only have been entertained by a
resolute spirit, and the undertaking begun by a leader who was prepared
to make the highest venture in order to preserve the highest
prize--nationality and religion. Among the Hebrews there could be no
other thought but to leave the borders of Egypt in order to resume the
old mode of life in the deserts of Syria, and there to worship their
old God in the old manner. In harmony with the situation the Ephraimitic
text represents the resolution to make an exodus as growing up after
long hesitation and grave thought in the soul of a man who, owing to the
oppression of his people, had come into the sharpest conflict with
Egypt, had fled into the desert in order to save his life, and there had
again seen and lived the free life of the kindred tribes. If the Hebrews
intended to leave Egypt it was necessary to know certainly that the
tribes of the desert, or at least a part, would receive them, and that
they would not one and all oppose them. By combination with the
Midianites the conditions most needed for the exodus could be supplied.
If of the Midianites and the Amalekites, the desert tribes who dwelt
nearest to Egypt, the first were gained for the Hebrews, and from them
support, assistance, and alliance in repulsing an Egyptian attack might
be expected, then it was possible to hope for success in the venture.
The Ephraimitic text represents the Hebrews as choosing that moment for
carrying out the exodus in which there was a change of the succession in
Egypt, and it is obvious that a change of this kind, the commencement of
a new and perhaps contested dominion, secured better prospects for the
Hebrews than an established rule when obedience was unchallenged.
According to the older text the Israelites gathered together near the
city of Ramses (Abu Kesheb) for the exodus. We have seen that this city
was built on the canal, nearly in the middle of the district allotted to
the Hebrews; it was therefore the natural place for meeting. From this
the Israelites took a southern direction towards the north-west point of
the Arabian Gulf, which is known to the Hebrews as the reed-sea. This
was the shortest way of reaching the deserts of the peninsula of Sinai
and the pastures of the Midianites, and on this line the Hebrews had the
Bitter Lakes at hand, from which could be obtained what water was
absolutely necessary. When they had passed Succoth, Etham, Pihahiroth,
and had reached the corner of the reed-sea, as the first text describes,
the pursuit overtook them, which Pharaoh had begun with a
hastily-collected force. Southward of the extreme point of the reed-sea,
in the neighbourhood of Suez, there are firths which can be crossed at
the ebb, especially if a strong north-east wind drives back the waves to
the south-west. By a strong east wind, blowing through the whole night,
Jehovah caused the sea to retire, and turned it into dry land; and the
water became a wall on the right hand and the left, as we learnt from
the oldest account. The extreme point of the reed-sea, _i.e._ the sea on
the left of the firth, is too deep to be crossed, on the right the wind
and the ebb kept the waters back.[637] Thus it was not in itself
impossible that the Hebrews reached the other shore, _i.e._ the
peninsula of Sinai, by passing through the firth and cutting off the
extreme point of the sea; and not impossible that the Egyptian army in
their eagerness to overtake the Hebrews, or afraid that the marshes at
the head of the sea would detain them so long that they could not come
up with them before the desert made pursuit very difficult, attempted to
cross the sea when the water had already returned. The narrative is
supported to some extent by the ancient song of victory (p. 446). This
song, it is true, cannot be proved to belong to that period, but it is
nevertheless of very ancient origin.[638]
The account which the Egyptians and Manetho give of the exodus of the
Hebrews has been already related. According to it the Hebrews are impure
and leprous Egyptians whom Pharaoh had banished to the quarries east of
the Nile, and made to work there, like other Egyptians employed in that
task. That the Hebrews are Egyptians, and leprous Egyptians, in the
Egyptian tradition, need excite no astonishment; white leprosy was a
disease from which the Israelites frequently suffered. We cannot contest
the number of the lepers, which Manetho puts at 80,000, though we have
already seen that the Hebrews at the time of the exodus could hardly
have approached this number of men capable of work. The Hebrew tradition
in both texts represents the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, the
descendants of Joseph and an Egyptian woman, as growing up during the
settlement in Egypt; the revision adds that a "number of strangers" left
Egypt with their forefathers. Moses, the leader of the lepers, is
described by Manetho as an Egyptian priest of Heliopolis, of the name of
Osarsiph. We saw that Heliopolis was the nearest centre of Egyptian
religious worship to the land of Goshen, and that the second text gives
the daughter of a priest of Heliopolis to Joseph to wife. According to
this text also Moses is brought up by the Egyptians, and the revision
calls him an "Egyptian."[639] Hence we can at once accept the statement
of Manetho that the leader of the Hebrews was skilled in the wisdom of
the Egyptian priests.[640] On the other hand the more detailed
narrative of Manetho is in itself far more improbable, more full of
contradictions and impossibilities, than the account of the Hebrews. It
does not agree with the tenor of Manetho's narrative when we find
Pharaoh giving over the fortified city of Avaris to the leprous
Egyptians whom he had banished to the stone quarries. In that city the
lepers rebel, there they make the priest of Heliopolis, Osarsiph, their
leader, and Osarsiph gives them the law, to worship no god, to eat the
most sacred animals, and to have dealings only with their confederates.
From hence he summons the Hyksos, who had been driven out of Avaris a
long time before, and had meanwhile built Jerusalem. Pharaoh goes with
an army of 300,000 of the best warriors of Egypt against the
conspirators, 80,000 unclean persons and 200,000 shepherds, yet turns
back voluntarily, and flies towards Ethiopia, while the confederates
desolate Egypt without pity for thirteen years. It is hardly credible
that a king of Egypt should abandon his kingdom without a struggle to
lepers and the descendants of the Hyksos. And if anyone is inclined to
assume that the Hebrews did actually combine, not with the supposed
Hyksos of Jerusalem, but perhaps with the Midianites, and conquer Egypt
and force the king into Ethiopia, and so rule over Egypt for thirteen
years--their tradition would not have forgotten or suppressed such a
glorious achievement of the nation, such a proof of the power of
Jehovah. Compared with this wholly purposeless exile of the king, the
account of the Hebrews seems far more credible--that Pharaoh did make
the attempt to stop the migration, but that the attempt was without
success.
It remains to fix the date at which the Hebrews succeeded in escaping
from the dominion of Egypt, and resuming their old mode of life in the
deserts of Syria. It has already been proved that Sethos I. and Ramses
II. were the Pharaohs who oppressed the Hebrews; and it is in harmony
with the whole situation to assume that the attempt to escape from this
oppression would be made under a less powerful successor. If, as is
shown above (p. 159), the Pharaoh of Manetho, who banished the lepers
and retired before them, was Menephta, the son and successor of Ramses
II., it would be Ramses II. before whom Moses fled into the desert, and
after his death he would have returned and carried out against his son
the attempt he could not have ventured upon against so powerful a ruler
as Ramses II. Menephta's rule falls in the years 1322 to 1302 B.C. Hence
the exodus of the Hebrews must be placed in this period, about the year
1320 B.C.[641] The immigration into the land of Goshen, we found that we
might place about the year 1550 B.C. (p. 433). Hence they dwelt there
about 230 years, and this lapse of time corresponds pretty closely to
the eight generations which the table of the leader under whom the
Hebrews afterwards conquered Canaan gave for the sojourn in Egypt (p.
431). When the Hebrews, after retiring from Egypt, wished to give up the
peninsula of Sinai, and settle themselves in the east of Jordan, they
besought "the king of Edom," according to the second text, for a free
passage through his country. The first text knows and mentions eight
kings who had ruled over Edom "before kings ruled over Israel." As the
monarchy was established in Israel about the year 1050 B.C. (see below),
eight generations would carry us two centuries beyond the date of Saul,
king of Israel, if this list could be regarded as historical, but the
two first names in it seem of a mythical rather than a historical
kind.[642]
The oldest accounts of western writers of the fortunes of the Hebrews
date from the time of the successors of Alexander of Macedon. They were
founded partly on accounts of the Egyptians, and partly on accounts of
the Hebrews themselves. The narrative of Hecataeus of Abdera, who was in
Egypt in the time of Ptolemy I., and wrote an Egyptian history, gives us
the most unprejudiced account, composed from the widest point of view,
and connects the emigration of the Hebrews, whom he does not consider
Egyptians, with the supposed emigration from Egypt to Greece. "Once,
when a pestilence had broken out in Egypt, the cause of the visitation
was generally ascribed to the anger of the gods. As many strangers of
various extraction dwelt in Egypt, and observed different customs in
religion and sacrifice, it came to pass that the hereditary worship of
the gods was being given up in Egypt. The Egyptians, therefore, were of
opinion that they would obtain no alleviation of the evil unless they
removed the people of foreign extraction. When they were driven out, the
noblest and bravest part of them, as some say, under noble and renowned
leaders, Danaus and Cadmus, came to Hellas; but the great bulk of them
migrated into the land, not far removed from Egypt, which is now called
Judaea, and was at that time without inhabitants. These emigrants were
led by Moses, who was the most distinguished among them for wisdom and
bravery. When he had settled in the land he built several cities, among
them Jerusalem, which is now the most famous. He also built the most
celebrated temples, taught the worship of the God, and the ritual, and
arranged the constitution, and gave laws. He divided the people into
twelve tribes, because this number is the most complete, and corresponds
to the number of the months which make up the year. The most handsome
men, who could also at the same time guide the united people best, he
made priests, and arranged that they should concern themselves with all
that was sacred, the religious worship and the sacrifices, and at the
same time he made them judges in the most important matters, and put
into their hands the preservation of the laws and customs. He erected no
images of the gods, because he did not believe that God had the form of
men; he rather believed that the heaven which surrounds the earth was
alone god and lord of all things. The sacrifices, too, and manner of
life he arranged unlike those of other people; owing to their own
banishment, he introduced among them a misanthropic and inhospitable
life. At the end of his laws is written: This Moses has heard from God,
and tells it to the Jews. This lawgiver also made provision for war, and
compelled the young men to exercise themselves in strength and
manliness, and the endurance of privations. He undertook campaigns
against the neighbouring nations, and divided the conquered land by lot,
and gave to the priests larger lots than to the rest. But no one was
permitted to trade with his lot, in order that none might from avarice
buy up the lots and drive away the more needy (by this is meant no doubt
the Hebrew year of Jubilee). He forced the people also to bring up their
children, and as it was possible to do this with little cost, the tribes
of the Jews were always numerous. About their marriages and their
burials he laid down quite different laws from those in use among other
nations."[643]
When Antiochus Sidetes besieged Jerusalem in the year 134 B.C., and
began to treat with the city, the greater part of the counsellors of the
king (so Diodorus tells us) were of opinion that the Jews ought to be
destroyed, for of all nations they were the only one who had no
community with others, and contracted no marriages with them, and
regarded them all as enemies. Their forefathers had been banished out of
the whole of Egypt as godless men, and abhorred of heaven. At that time
all who had white leprosy, and scales upon the body, were collected as
being under a curse and sent over the border in order to purify the
land. The expelled persons had then gathered together and formed the
nation of the Jews; they had taken the districts round about Jerusalem,
and propagated their hatred of mankind. Hence they had adopted wholly
different laws from others. They were not to eat with strangers at one
table, or bear them any friendly feeling. When Antiochus Epiphanes
conquered the Jews (167 B.C.), he went into the innermost shrine of the
temple, which only the priests might enter, and there he found the stone
image of a man with a long beard, who was riding on an ass with a book
in his hand. This statue he took for an image of Moses, who had founded
Jerusalem, gathered the people together, and given the wicked and
misanthropic laws.[644]
Strabo remarks that southern Syria "was inhabited by mixed tribes of
Egyptian, Arabian, and Phenician origin, but the prevailing legend of
the temple at Jerusalem called the ancestors of the Jews Egyptians. For
Moses, one of the Egyptian priests, who occupied a part of this land,
and was dissatisfied with his condition, removed from that country, and
many who worshipped the deity emigrated with him, and Moses told them
and taught that the Egyptians were not right in representing the
divinity as a wild or domesticated animal, nor the Libyans, nor were the
Hellenes wise in giving gods the form of men. For only the One was God
which surrounds us all and the earth and the sea, and who was called
Uranus and Cosmos, and the nature of things. How could any reasoning
creature venture to make an image which should truly represent this
nature? All making of images must be cast aside, a sacred place must be
marked off, and a temple erected, and prayers offered without any image.
In order to have fortunate dreams it was needful to sleep in the
sanctuary, and those who were wise and lived with justice could always
expect signs and gifts from God. By such doctrines Moses convinced not a
few men of reason, and led them to the place where Jerusalem now is. He
easily obtained possession of the land, because it was not sufficiently
valuable for anyone to fight vigorously for it. It is rocky, and the
district round the city is without water. At the same time he pretended
to take it for the sake of the sanctity of the place, and the deity for
whom he sought a dwelling, and established such a ritual and such
sacrificial customs, that the worshippers were not compelled to undergo
great expense, or vex themselves by any ecstasies, contortions of the
body, or vile occupation. As this was well received, Moses established
no unimportant dominion, for those who dwelt round about were induced by
his speeches and promises to join him. But at a later time superstitious
and even tyrannical men acquired the priesthood, and from superstition
the abstinences from food, circumcision, and mutilation and other things
of the kind became law, and are observed even to this day. The
capricious nature of the ruling power ended in robbery, for the
insurgents plundered the land. But those who were with the rulers
subjugated even the border territories, and conquered a good deal of
Syria and Phoenicia. Yet the fortress, which, instead of treating it
as a place of confinement they worshipped as a temple, retained a
certain dignity."[645]
Better acquainted with the traditions of the Hebrews, Nicolaus of
Damascus tells us that Abraham came with an army out of Chaldaea, which
lies beyond Babylon, and ruled over Damascus. Not long after he again
set out from this place with his people, and established himself in the
land which was then called Chananaea, and afterwards Judaea. Here he dwelt
and his numerous posterity. "The name of Abraham is still praised in the
region of Damascus, and a village is pointed out which is called
Abraham's dwelling, after him."[646] This account, of which the
continuation in the writings of Nicolaus is lost, was used, as it
seems, by Trogus Pompeius. His account survives only in the excerpt of
Justinus. "The Jews," so we find in this excerpt, "derive their origin
from Damascus, the most famous city of Syria. This city took its name
from king Damascus, in whose honour the Syrians revered the tomb of his
wife Astarte as a temple, and worshipped her as a goddess in the most
sacred manner. After Damascus, Azelus reigned, then Adores, then
Abraham, and lastly Israhel. Israhel became more famous than his
predecessors, for he had ten sons to help him. So he left the nation
divided into ten kingdoms to his sons, and called them after the name of
Juda, who died after the division, Judaeans, and commanded that his
memory should be held in honour by all, because his share had profited
all the others. The youngest of the brothers was Joseph. The others were
afraid of his pre-eminent gifts, and secretly they got him into their
power, and sold him to foreign merchants. By these he was carried to
Egypt, and as he gave his mind eagerly to the magic arts of the place,
he was soon in high estimation even with the king. For he was the most
acute expounder of signs and wonders, and first founded the
interpretation of dreams. Nothing in divine or human ordinances seemed
hidden from him; he even foresaw the unfruitfulness of the land many
years before it came. The whole of Egypt would have been destroyed by
famine had not the king, at Joseph's suggestion, ordered corn to be laid
by for many years previously, and he gave such proofs of his wisdom that
his answers seemed to be those of a god and not of a man. His son was
Moses, who in addition to the inheritance of his father's wisdom,
received also great beauty of person. But at the bidding of an oracle
the Egyptians banished him, because they were afflicted with scab and
leprosy, with all the diseased persons beyond their borders, so that he
might not infect more. Chosen to be leader of the exiles, Moses took
from the Egyptians their sacred things. The Egyptians rose to recover
them by force of arms, but were compelled to return by storms. Then
Moses as he turned towards his old fatherland, Damascus, settled on
Mount Syna. As he came there with his people exhausted after seven days'
privations in the deserts of Arabia, he consecrated each seventh day a
fast for all time. After the manner of the people this day was called
Sabbata, because it had put an end to the hunger and wandering. And when
they remembered that they had been driven out of Egypt from fear of
contamination, they were careful that they should not be hated by the
inhabitants from the same causes and had no dealings with them, which
rule in time became a strict custom and religious observance. After
Moses, his son Arvas became priest of the Egyptian sacred things, and
was soon after chosen to be king. Since then it became a custom among
the Jews that their priests should be at the same time kings, and their
duties as judges, combined with the worship of the god, held the nation
uncommonly close together."[647]
The most marvellous story is that of Lysimachus of Alexandria, who
brings down the exodus of the Jews to the eighth century B.C. "At the
time of king Bocchoris, unclean and leprous men had come into the
temples to beg for food. Hence there was a blight in the land; and
Bocchoris received a response from Ammon, that the temples must be
purified. The lepers, as if the sun were angry at their existence, were
to be plunged into the sea, and the unclean were to be driven out of the
land. Hence the lepers were tied to plates of lead, and thrown into the
sea; but the unclean were driven out helpless into the desert. These met
together in council; in the night they lit fires and lights, and called,
fasting, upon the gods to save them. Then a certain Moses advised them
to go through the desert till they came to inhabited regions, but at the
same time required them to show kindness to no man, to advise every one
for the worst, and to destroy all altars and temples upon which they
came. The exiles approved, and after many hardships came through the
desert to an inhabited land, and after treating the men cruelly, robbing
and burning the temples, they established a city Hierosyla
(temple-plunder) in Judaea, and afterwards, to lessen the disgrace, the
name was slightly altered into Hierosolyma (Jerusalem)."[648]
Even this narrative was accepted and believed. Tacitus first enumerated
the different views of the writers on the origin of the Jews, in order
finally to agree in all essential points with the narrative of
Lysimachus. "According to the view of some," Tacitus says, "the Jews
were descendants of the Ethiopians, whom fear and disinclination
compelled, at the time of king Kepheus, to change their dwelling; others
say that a horde coming from Assyria gained possession of a part of
Egypt, and soon after passed into the neighbouring parts of Syria, and
inhabited the Hebrew land and cities." The latter statement obviously
confounds the immigration of the Hyksos and the Jews, and makes them a
mingled horde of Assyrians, but still is nearest the truth. "Others,
again," Tacitus continues, "are of opinion that under the rule of Isis
in Egypt, the number of men became too great, and the superfluous
multitudes were settled under the leadership of Hierosolymus and Judah
in the neighbouring lands. But most authorities agree that under king
Bocchoris a contagious disease raged in Egypt, and the oracle of Ammon
bade them purify the kingdom and remove the diseased persons out of the
land as a race hated by the gods. Hence the unclean were collected and
left behind in the desert. Amid their idle lamentations one of the
exiles, Moses, warned them that they had no assistance to expect from
gods or men, for they were abandoned by both, but they were to trust to
him as a heavenly leader by whose assistance they might be rescued from
their present calamities. To this they agreed, and in complete ignorance
struck out a path at random. The want of water distressed them most, and
almost at death's door they sank upon the ground, when a herd of wild
asses ran from the pasture to a rock covered with trees. Moses followed
them, and found copious streams of water. This saved them, and after a
march of six days they came on the seventh day to a region where, when
they had expelled the inhabitants, they founded a city and a temple. In
order to strengthen the nation and establish his own supremacy, Moses
gave them new customs, quite opposed to the usages of the rest of the
world. What we consider sacred, they regard as profane; and what is
permitted to us is forbidden to them. The image of the animal which had
shown them an escape from their wanderings, and put an end to their
thirst, they placed in the innermost shrine, after they had slain a ram.
in order, as it were, to throw contempt upon Ammon. They abstained from
swine's flesh in remembrance of the misery which the leprosy, to which
this animal is subject, had once brought upon them. The long hunger
which they then endured they still avow by frequent fasts; and as a
proof of the fruits once stolen, their bread is unleavened. On the
seventh day they rest, because the seventh day brought them to an end of
their labours; the seventh year also, induced by their laziness, they
have given up to inaction. Others are of opinion that this is done in
honour of Saturn, because Saturn completes the highest circle of all the
seven stars which rule the fortunes of men, and is of pre-eminent power,
and most constellations accomplish their influence and their orbits by
the number seven.
"Other abominable customs have come into force owing to their vile
corruption. For all the worst of men, despising their hereditary
religions, brought money and contributions to them; and because among
them stiffnecked belief and ready assistance was to be found, and deadly
hatred towards the rest of the world, their power increased. They do not
eat with strangers or make marriages with them; and this nation,
otherwise most prone to debauchery, abstains from all strange women.
They have introduced circumcision in order to distinguish themselves
thereby; and those who have adopted their customs follow this practice.
The first lesson learnt by their youth is to hate the gods, to despise
their country, to disregard parents, children, and brothers. Yet they
take considerable care to increase their numbers. It is a sin to slay a
kinsman, and the souls of all slain in battle and by execution they
consider immortal. Hence they have a lively impulse to beget children,
and they hold death in contempt. The custom of burying the dead,
instead of burning them, they have borrowed from the Egyptians; on the
other hand, the Jews alone worship in the spirit a single deity, while
the Egyptians offer prayer to many animals and composite images. They
also consider it profane to make any images of God out of perishable
material in the form of men, for the deity is the Highest, the Eternal,
the Unchangeable and Imperishable. Hence in their cities and temples
there are no images. As their priests use the music of flutes and drums,
and wear crowns of ivy, and a golden vine was found in the temple, some
have thought that they worshipped the conqueror of the East, the god
Bacchus. But the rites are widely different. Bacchus inaugurated blithe
and merry festivals; but the customs of the Jews are absurd and
melancholy.[649]"
FOOTNOTES:
[630] Exod. xv. 1-11; cf. Joshua xxiv. 7.
[631] Noeldeke, "Untersuchungen," s. 40.
[632] Exod. i. 1-7, 13, 14; ii. 23, 24; vi. 2-7, 9-27; vii. 8-13, 19-22;
viii. 1-4, 12-15; ix. 8-11; xii. 1-23, 37, 40-51; xiii. 20; xiv. 8, 9,
15-17, 21-23, 29.
[633] Exod. xiii. 2; xxii. 29, 30; xxxiv. 19, 20. "The firstborn of thy
sons thou shalt give to me. Likewise shalt thou do with thine oxen, and
thy sheep. All that openeth the matrix is mine, all thy cattle that is
male. All the firstborn of thy sons thou shalt redeem." Cf. Exod. xxx.
11-16.
[634] Ewald, "Alterthuemer des Volkes Israel," s. 358 ff.
[635] De Wette-Schrader. "Einleitung," s. 282, 284, 290.
[636] Lepsius, "Briefe," s. 46, 47.
[637] Ebers. "Durch Gosen." s. 101 ff.
[638] Noeldeke. "Untersuchungen," s. 47. According to De Wette-Schrader,
from the second text ("Einleitung," 283), verses 11-17 may be an
addition; verses 19-21 obviously come from the revision.
[639] Exod. ii. 19.
[640] Buedinger ("Akad. d. Wissenschaft zu Wien," Sitzung vom, 15
October, 1873) regards Moses and Aaron as of Egyptian origin, as
Egyptian priests, and finds the tribe of Levi in the leprous Egyptians
who went out with the Hebrews. Lauth ("Moses der Hebraeer," and
"Zeitsch. d. d. M. G." 1871, s. 135 ff) inclines to recognise Moses in
the mohar, sotem (scribe) and messu of the papyrus Anastasi I., who
would thus have been one of the Egyptian scholars, and employed by
Ramses II. in matters of state and war. This view is opposed by Pleyte
("Zeitschr. f. aeg. Sprache," 1869, s. 30, 100 ff.); he reads the name
Ptah-messu. Lauth, at the same time, refuses to derive the name Osarsiph
from Osiris; he considers it to be Semitic, and explains it as
a-sar-suph, _i.e._ "rush-basket."
[641] Lepsius, "Koenigsbuch der AEgypten," s. 117-150. Maspero objects
that Egypt in the time of Menephta was still too powerful for the
Israelites to carry out their exodus. Such a plan was possible for the
first time in the last years of Sethos II. (above, p. 150), or shortly
after his death ("Hist. Ancienne," p. 259). These considerations are of
too general a nature to allow any definite conclusions to be founded
upon them; and if Josephus or his copyist changed the Menephtes of
Manetho into the much better known Amenophis, or mistook one for the
other, a similar interchange cannot so easily be assumed for the names
Sethos and Menephtes.
[642] Gen. xxxvi. 31-39; Noeldeke, "Untersuchungen," s. 87.
[643] Diod. 40, frag. 3.
[644] Diod. 34, frag. 1.
[645] Strabo, p. 760, 761.
[646] Fragm. 30, ed. Mueller.
[647] Justin. "Hist." 36, 2.
[648] Joseph. "c. Apion." 1, 34.
[649] "Hist." 5, 2-5.